UK SOCCER REVELATION

Man city bosses regret allowing Thaksin to take over their club

By AGENCIES

London

Published on September 20, 2009

'We failed to do proper research on him,' chief executive tells Guardian

Senior figures at Manchester City have publicly rounded on the club's former owner, ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, in comments reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper yesterday.

Garry Cook, the club's executive chairman, said he "deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin", while manager Mark Hughes admitted he made "too many assumptions" before joining from Blackburn Rovers last year.

It is three years since Thaksin, who is living in exile to avoid jail for corruption, was toppled by the military and had $U$2.2 billion dollars (Bt76 billion) in funds frozen soon afterwards.

Hughes, Cook and others including midfielder Stephen Ireland said a lack of cash under Thaksin meant Manchester City was well short of having the resources needed to make the club big hitters in the Premiership.

"I made too many assumptions," Hughes told the Guardian. "I assumed that people and facilities would be top quality and it was patently obvious they weren't."

Cook admitted that the atmosphere at Eastlands was like a "lion's den".

"Thaksin's money was locked away," he said. "We got into a position where we couldn't pay the players and [ex-chairman] John Wardle was asked to lend the club two million pounds (Bt110 million)."

Ireland added: "It was mad that somebody like that ... could own our football club".

Hughes was frustrated by the club's problems during the tumultuous few months he worked under Thaksin.

"The reality wasn't exactly what was described and sold to me," Hughes was quoted as telling The Guardian website. "In fairness, we were able to go into the transfer market, but there seemed a focus that players had to be sold, and I realised that maybe the resources weren't in place that I thought."

Hughes found it difficult to concentrate on his job while Thaksin was at the helm.

"If you get to a point where it is untenable and not manageable, then you make the decision to walk away," he said. "I never got to that point - but I was close."

Hughes persevered and saw City bought in September 2008 by Abu Dhabi's wealthy Sheikh Mansour, who has lavished more than US$200 million on new players.

Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the club's current chairman, said the situation the new owner, Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, inherited was "simply unacceptable" and forced quick action to make basic improvements to, for example, the club's gym.

-- The Nation 2009/09/20

UK SOCCER REVELATION

Man city bosses regret allowing Thaksin to take over their club

By AGENCIES

London

Published on September 20, 2009

'We failed to do proper research on him,' chief executive tells Guardian

Senior figures at Manchester City have publicly rounded on the club's former owner, ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, in comments reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper yesterday.

Garry Cook, the club's executive chairman, said he "deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin", while manager Mark Hughes admitted he made "too many assumptions" before joining from Blackburn Rovers last year.

The assumption that they made (like most other English soccer clubs) was that he had bottomless pockets. It's about time they went back to hard leather ankle length boots and a wage of 3 quid a week

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by endure

And jumpers for goal posts.

And jumpers for goal posts.

Too true! And they could get their Mum to bring oranges out at half-time

And jumpers for goal posts.

Too true! And they could get their Mum to bring oranges out at half-time

I can imagine Craig Bellamy saying "It's my ball and if I'm not captain today I'm taking it home so you can't play"

Should have read T.Visa at the time leading up to accepting him for his deep pockets.

Most of us who were posting at T.Visa were making it clear that T was Trouble with a capital T.

One of the many big ironies in M.City's belated realizations, is that T always presents himself as a big shot business genius. Yet now we find he didn't provide promised (and sufficient) funding to support his purchase. The other side of the coin is; Premier League teams are way top-heavy (spending ridiculous amounts on salaries, etc) , and even the most prestigious clubs are in the red this year.

Many ThaiVisaites knew the purchase was just a game for T, and that he has the concentration abilities of a 3 year old, jumping from one project to another as soon as the jet is fueled up and ready to take him to another country .....with grande promises thrown around like paper airplanes.

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by brahmburgers

T always presents himself as a big shot business genius

He has that effect on people, it's a god given gift and he's got it. Not fair to fault Man City's bosses for falling for his charms, they were not the first ones.

Due diligence was not applied in vetting Thaksin in any way.

MC is now at the bottom of the heap again; one bloke to blame.

And he is such a wonderful business man, he can save the country from the world wide recession,

but can't managed a footie team... Oh yeah lets give him back a nation to run in tough times.

Yeah! Right! "That's the ticket!"

This clearly shows that Thaksins claim to have sold the Club for a multi-million dollar profit is nonsense and again raises the issue that perhaps Money Laundering suspicions were behind the revoking of his British Visa.

Patrick

T always presents himself as a big shot business genius

He has that effect on people, it's a god given gift and he's got it. Not fair to fault Man City's bosses for falling for his charms, they were not the first ones.

T himself admits he lost large % of his wealth by mis-reading the stock market crash of 2008. I know a guy who cashed out his portfolio 100% - two weeks before the crash. Who's the genius in that scenario?

Anyone who has objectively followed how T became rich knows he arranged a lot of nefarious dealings and deceptions in the process. It served to make him rich, but I wouldn't add the adjective 'genius' to his name. Indeed, the medals he was awarded in Thailand, for becoming filthy rich, should be taken back by those organizations which issued them. Otherwise, him keeping those accolades is a blemish on those institutions.

T always presents himself as a big shot business genius

He has that effect on people, it's a god given gift and he's got it. Not fair to fault Man City's bosses for falling for his charms, they were not the first ones.

A lot of people in Thailand regret having him as PM too.

Basically when you hear Thaksin named as as a genius and then remember some of his utterings (like when he said he'd watched a PAD rally on google earth and the number of attendees was far below what PAD had claimed-of course being too dumb to know that it wasn't real time so getting caught out in a lie) you have to shake your head in bemusement.

Anybody can be a genius if they possess no moral scruples. I could ask all the ThaiVisa members to lend me 10k baht until next week having no intention of paying it back. If only 1% gave me the cash I'd still be quids in. Or I could borrow my neighbours car and sell it to some Cambodian lads. Doesn't make me a genius though. It makes me a crook.

Let's face it, if he didn't have those shady telecoms deals, he would not be who he was today. Didn't he start off selling computers or something like that? Anyway, it is very sad to learn that a lot of Thais seem to take his word for everything simply because he is rich.

Golly gee, seems that the Thaksin haters are having a bit of a problem dealing with this complaint from a sports franchise management team that has followed the trend of blaming the owners for not writing a blank cheque to subsidize bad player development and management or to pay inflated salaries for mediocre players.

If the I hate Thaksin brigade too readily agree, then it means an acknowledgement of the fact that that uncle Thaksie didn't have the limitless funds as they claimed he had. After all, he supposedly looted billions and billions of baht.

This excuse from professional sports team managers is getting tired. It's a business and they failed at the business, period. Major team franchises in the South American football leagues, the NHL and MLB have all heard the same excuse from the team managers and coaches in the past 5 years. Last month it was some idiot crying the blues in Brasil over no money. Work with what you have and make the game fun for the spectators. There are teams out there that lose but draw crowds because the team puts on a good show, the food in the stadium is edible and ticket prices are manageable.

And as for Thaksin's decision to buy the team? He's an idiot. It wasn't a franchise he could merchandise or integrate into a business model (e.g. breweries or food companies or Disney), he couldn't take the losses against other business income gains and he sure as <deleted> didn't know the first thing about running a sports franchise. However, he learns fast and sold the team. Probably lost some money on the deal, but he isn't telling.

Know what? I don't care. Know what else? Millions of people agree with me. that's why attendance at all major sporting events keeps falling. Professional sports leagues are boring and too many teams rip off the fans, so I say screw it.

Due diligence was not applied in vetting Thaksin in any way.

MC is now at the bottom of the heap again; one bloke to blame.

And he is such a wonderful business man, he can save the country from the world wide recession,

but can't managed a footie team... Oh yeah lets give him back a nation to run in tough times.

Yeah! Right! "That's the ticket!"

Bottom of the heap? Glad to see you check your facts before posting. They sit in second 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand.

We know you are the leader of the Thai Visa Anti Thaskin Brigade, but give the boys from MC a little credit

...that's why attendance at all major sporting events keeps falling.

Sure is, just look at the red shirt rallies.

For Man City to be crying about how they were fooled by Thaksin is laughable. I seem to remember they chose between a number of bids, and sheer greed made them pick his. They had their warnings, but chose to ignore them. Weren't there also a number of statements from the club to the effect that everything had been thoroughly checked and Thaksin was genuine? Oh well, add another group to the growing list of those who did business with Thaksin and got royally screwed. Is there anyone outside his family that hasn't?

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by ballpoint

Bottom of the heap? Glad to see you check your facts before posting. They sit in second 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand.

We know you are the leader of the Thai Visa Anti Thaskin Brigade, but give the boys from MC a little credit

Maybe he was using "bottom of the heap" in reference to their reputation and integrity?

Due diligence was not applied in vetting Thaksin in any way.

MC is now at the bottom of the heap again; one bloke to blame.

And he is such a wonderful business man, he can save the country from the world wide recession,

but can't managed a footie team... Oh yeah lets give him back a nation to run in tough times.

Yeah! Right! "That's the ticket!"

Bottom of the heap? Glad to see you check your facts before posting. They sit in second 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand.

We know you are the leader of the Thai Visa Anti Thaskin Brigade, but give the boys from MC a little credit

I will accept that.

I am a yank I real rarely follow this particular sport,

BUT... last I saw of a rating for MC they were doing rather poorly.

Not my sport. mea culpa.

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by animatic

BUT... last I saw of a rating for MC they were doing rather poorly.

Not my sport. mea culpa.

Well before you post, you should maybe have a quick check as to what is the current situation.

Played 4, won 4. Maximum points

UK SOCCER REVELATION

Man city bosses regret allowing Thaksin to take over their club

By AGENCIES

London

Published on September 20, 2009

'We failed to do proper research on him,' chief executive tells Guardian

Senior figures at Manchester City have publicly rounded on the club's former owner, ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, in comments reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper yesterday.

Garry Cook, the club's executive chairman, said he "deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin", while manager Mark Hughes admitted he made "too many assumptions" before joining from Blackburn Rovers last year.

The assumption that they made (like most other English soccer clubs) was that he had bottomless pockets. It's about time they went back to hard leather ankle length boots and a wage of 3 quid a week

Before he took over, we had pretty big debts and we'd had them for years. He cleared them all off, leaving us in a better financial situation than we had ever been. He then sold us to a guy who really has got bottomless pockets (as can be seen by our spending this summer). Credit where credit is due, Man City is in better shape than ever before, wether you like Thaksin or loathe him.

Well it's good the Sheik's investments have been paying off.

I am not anti-MC, so don't be quite so defensive of you please.

You’ll need to look closely at this tricky little puzzle. There are seven 9 differences between these two photos. Can you see and name them? Click on one to see larger size.

1. _______

2. _______

3. _______

4. _______

5. _______

6. _______

7. _______

8. _______

9. _______

Basically when you hear Thaksin named as as a genius and then remember some of his utterings (like when he said he'd watched a PAD rally on google earth and the number of attendees was far below what PAD had claimed-of course being too dumb to know that it wasn't real time so getting caught out in a lie) you have to shake your head in bemusement.

Anybody can be a genius if they possess no moral scruples. I could ask all the ThaiVisa members to lend me 10k baht until next week having no intention of paying it back. If only 1% gave me the cash I'd still be quids in. Or I could borrow my neighbours car and sell it to some Cambodian lads. Doesn't make me a genius though. It makes me a crook.

I cant imagine anyone beyond a paid underling or sycophantic wannabe politco ex-actor/newscaster with fading career who would describe Thaksin as a genius. Would anyone describe Thailands biggest human rights abuser in decades as a genius too?

Well it's good the Sheik's investments have been paying off.

I am not anti-MC, so don't be quite so defensive of you please.

If you think correcting something that somebody has stated, is being defensive, then i apologise.

I must admit, I've been a Man City fan all my life and i do tend to get a tad protective of them.

T always presents himself as a big shot business genius

He has that effect on people, it's a god given gift and he's got it. Not fair to fault Man City's bosses for falling for his charms, they were not the first ones.

T himself admits he lost large % of his wealth by mis-reading the stock market crash of 2008. I know a guy who cashed out his portfolio 100% - two weeks before the crash. Who's the genius in that scenario?

Anyone who has objectively followed how T became rich knows he arranged a lot of nefarious dealings and deceptions in the process. It served to make him rich, but I wouldn't add the adjective 'genius' to his name. Indeed, the medals he was awarded in Thailand, for becoming filthy rich, should be taken back by those organizations which issued them. Otherwise, him keeping those accolades is a blemish on those institutions.

"I know a guy who cashed out his portfolio 100% - two weeks before the crash"

only because he needed the money. If your suggesting he saw it coming he would literally be one in a million.

Why are these anti-MrT nonothings abusing this thread? Go back to the red and yellow shirt threads you enjoy vandalizing so thoroughly...

I see a couple of points:

1) Man City have done really well out of this. I thought MrT would rape them, and they'd be in far worse shape for his time there. This prediction has been proved wrong - the way things were before he joined Man City to how they are now is a huge improved. I'd love to see Man City win today and really shake up the Premeier league - clearly Fergy is worried hence his mouth going into overdrive.

2) Crooks and criminals putting money into Premier league clubs is rife, so many to name, obviously the Chelsea Ruskie springs to mind... But, you can go back years to the rather large sized paper tycoon and many many others putting money into English football teams in an attempt to legitamize their suspect business dealings - look at Birmingham; built on a porn empire... The government should have dealt with these crooks years ago, but it won't happen; The city of London; politicians, money markets, home of the FA and Premier league, business in general, is probably THE world city for crooks and criminals to bring in stolen monies. Sad, as it's my hometown, but very true... Welcome to the free market economy - much freeer if you enter with bundles of cash.

UK SOCCER REVELATION

Man city bosses regret allowing Thaksin to take over their club

By AGENCIES

London

Published on September 20, 2009

'We failed to do proper research on him,' chief executive tells Guardian

Senior figures at Manchester City have publicly rounded on the club's former owner, ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, in comments reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper yesterday.

Garry Cook, the club's executive chairman, said he "deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin", while manager Mark Hughes admitted he made "too many assumptions" before joining from Blackburn Rovers last year.

We

The assumption that they made (like most other English soccer clubs) was that he had bottomless pockets. It's about time they went back to hard leather ankle length boots and a wage of 3 quid a week

Before he took over, we had pretty big debts and we'd had them for years. He cleared them all off, leaving us in a better financial situation than we had ever been. He then sold us to a guy who really has got bottomless pockets (as can be seen by our spending this summer). Credit where credit is due, Man City is in better shape than ever before, wether you like Thaksin or loathe him.

We!

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by rabcbroon

Due diligence was not applied in vetting Thaksin in any way.

MC is now at the bottom of the heap again; one bloke to blame.

And he is such a wonderful business man, he can save the country from the world wide recession,

but can't managed a footie team... Oh yeah lets give him back a nation to run in tough times.

Yeah! Right! "That's the ticket!"

Bottom of the heap? Glad to see you check your facts before posting. They sit in second 3 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand.

We know you are the leader of the Thai Visa Anti Thaskin Brigade, but give the boys from MC a little credit

I will accept that.

I am a yank I real rarely follow this particular sport,

BUT... last I saw of a rating for MC they were doing rather poorly.

Not my sport. mea culpa.

no clue, no idea, no substance, no facts, but an "expert" to spot the bloke who is to blame.

T always presents himself as a big shot business genius

He has that effect on people, it's a god given gift and he's got it. Not fair to fault Man City's bosses for falling for his charms, they were not the first ones.

A lot of people in Thailand regret having him as PM too.

Very true, but as your post fails to mention most do not. Good to see an anti-Taksin football post again, it has been a while venting on that angle.

Perhaps we also need to hear about:

His tailor

His favorite restaurant

His favorite exile country

His latest Gik

What brand of underpants he wears

What haemorrhoid cream he uses

Does her prefer Viagra or Cialis

Come on, there are plenty of anti-Taksin topics not even covered yet.

Garry Cook, the club's executive chairman, said he "deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin"

So google hasn't reached Manchester yet?

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by mca